Various cup carriers and holders are known in the art for carrying a plurality of cups of paper, plastic, or cardboard from a food service facility.
For example, a cup caddy is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,647 having a plurality of cup engaging portions each supported by support webs at generally opposite sides of the cup engaging portions. Some of the support webs are doubled back, and an elongating element is provided in a center support web. T h e known cup carriers are cut from a sheet of plastic so that the support webs and doubled back portions are free. Also, various parts have convex shaped edges, as well as having gradually narrowing spaces between edges. All of these features promote catching and entangling between the cup carriers when several are being handled or stored together. This is of particular significance since such carriers are most often stored and used in quantity. In particular, such cup carriers can hook onto one another much the way a box of clothes hangers tangle so that separation of the cup carriers becomes difficult. Many other flexible carriers experience the same problem since tabs or loose flaps are present.